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if 



THE PROGRESS OF LIBERTY, 



IN 



A HUNDRED YEARS, 

AN ORATION, 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

Citizens of Taunton, 
4:tK July 1876. 

BY CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS^ Uoy-i^^t,, 




-^©^ 



TAUNTON, MASS.: 

PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF C. A, HACK & SON, 
1876. 

ON 



®ifg of ^axinion. 



In Board of Aldekmek, > 
Atignst 2d, 1876. ) 

Ordered, That the Committee on Printing be and hereby are instmcted 
forthwith to have printed in pamphlet form 300 copies of the oration delivered 
by Hon. Charles Francis Adams, before the citizens of Taunton, on the 4th of 
July last, and that said Committee have printed therewith such other matter 
pertaining to the Centennial celebration as the Committee on celebration deems 
expedient. 

In Common Council, 

Concurred. 



August 3d, 1876. Approved by the Ma} or. 

True Copy — Attest : 

J. M. CUSHMAN, City Clerk. 



THE PROGRESS OF LIBERTY. 



I SALUTE you, my fellow countrymen, with a cheer of wel- 
come on this joyous day, when forty millions of human voices 
rise up with one accord to heaven, in grateful benisons for the 
mercies showered on three successive generations of the race, 
by the Great Disposer of events, during the hundred years 
that have passed away. Yet far be it from us to glory in this 
anniversary festival with any spirit of ostentation, as if assum- 
ing to be the very elect of God's creatures. Let us rather 
join in humble but earnest supplication for the continuance 
of that support from aloft by reason of which a small and 
weak and scattered band have been permitted so to grow into 
strength as now to command a recognized position among the 
leading powers of the earth. 

Less than three centuries since, the European explorer first 
set his foot on these northern shores, with a view to occupa- 
tion. He found a primitive race aspiring scarcely higher 
than to the common enjoyment of animal existence, and slow 
to respond to any nobler call. How long they had continued 
in the same condition there was little evidence to determine. 
But enough has been since gathered to justify the belief that 
advance never could have been one of their attributes. With- 
out forecast, and insensible to ambition, after long experience 
and earnest effort to elevate them, the experiment of civiliz- 
ation must be admitted to have failed. The North American 
Indian never could have improved the state he was in when 
first found here. He must be regarded merely as the 
symbol of continuous negation, of the everlasting rotation of 
the present, not profiting by the experience of the past, and 
feebly sensible of the possibilities of the future. 



The European had at last come in upon him, and the scene 
began at once to change. The magnificence of nature pre- 
sented to his view, to which the native had been blind, at 
once stimulated his passion to develop its advantages by cul- 
ture, and ere long the wilderness began to blossom as the 
rose. The hum of industry was heard to echo in every valley, 
and it ascended every mountain. A new people had appear- 
ed, animated by a spirit which enlisted labor without stint 
and directed it in channels of beauty and of use. With eyes 
steadily fixed upon the future, and their sturdy sinews braced 
to the immediate task, there is no cause for wonder that the 
sparse but earnest adventurers who first set foot on the soil 
of the new continent, should in the steady progress of time, 
have made good the aspirations with which they began, of 
founding a future happy home for ever increasing millions of 
their -race. Between two such forces, the American Indian, 
who dwells only in the present, and the European pioneer, 
who fixes his gaze so steadily on the future, the issue of a 
struggle could end only in one way. Whilst the one goes on 
dwindling even to the prospect of ultimate extinction, the 
other spreads peace and happiness among numbers increasing 
over the continent with a rapidity never before equalled in 
the records of civilization. 

But here it seems as if I catch a sound of rebuke from afar 
in another quarter of the globe. " Come now," says the 
hoary denizen of ancient Africa, " this assurance on the part 
of a new people like you is altogether intolerable. You, of a 
race starting only as if yesterday, with youi- infant civiliza- 
tion, what nonsense to pride yourself on your petty labors, 
when you have not an idea of the magnitude of the works and 
the magnificence of the results obtained from them in our 
fertile regions by a population refined long and long and 
long before you and your boasted new continent were 
even dreamed of in the march of mankind. Just come 
over here to the land of Egypt, flowing with milk and honey. 
Cast a glance at our temples and pyramids, at our lakes and 



rivers, and even our tombs, erected so long since tliat nobody 
can tell when. Observe the masterly skill displayed in secur- 
ing durability, calling for a corresponding contribution* of 
skilled labor from myriads of workmen to complete them. 
Consider further that even that holy book, which you your- 
selves esteem as embodying the highest conception of the 
Deity, and lessons of morals continually taught among you 
to this day, had its origin substantially from here, Remem- 
ber that all this happened before the development of the boast- 
ed Greek and Roman cultivation, and be modest with preten- 
sions for your land of yesterday, of any peculiar merit for 
your aspirations to advance mankind. 

To all of which interjection of my African prompter I 
make but a short reply. By his own showing lie appeals on- 
ly to what was ages ago, and not to what now is. What are 
the imperishable monuments constructed so long since, but 
memorials of an obsolete antiquity, to be gazed upon by the 
wandering traveler as examples never to be copied ? If once 
devoted to special forms of Divine worship, the faith that an- 
imated the structures has not simply lost its vitality, but has 
been buried in oblivion. What are the catacombs but 
futile efforts to perpetuate mere matter after the living prin- 
ciple has vanished away ? Why not have applied what they 
cost to advance the condition of the rising generations ? How 
about the sacred book to which you refer ? Does it not record 
an account of an emigration of an industrious and conscientious 
people compelled to fly by reason of the recklessness of an igno- 
rant ruler V And how has it been ever since ? Although con- 
ceded by nature one of the most favored regions of the earth, 
the general tendency has been far from indicating a corres- 
ponding degree of prosperity. Even the splendid memorials 
of long past ages testify by the solitude around them only to 
the folly of indulging in vain aspirations. The conclusion 
then to be drawn from such a spectacle is not a vision of life 
but of death, not of hope but of despair. 



^ 8 

Lo ! I have presented to you in this picture the three types 
of humanity as exemplified in the social systems of the world. 

•Whilst the African represents the past, and the Indian 
clings only to the present, it is left to the European and his 
congener in America persistently to follow in the future the 
great object of the advancement of mankind. 

1. The retrograde. 2. The stationary, o. The advance. 
Which is it to be with us ? 

We can only judge of the future by what it has been in the 
past. Is there or is there not a peculiar element, not found 
in either of the other races, which has shown so much vigor 
in the American during the past century as to give him a fair 
right to count upon large improvement in time to come ? 

I confidently answer for him that there is. That element 
is his devotion to the principle of liberty. " 

Do you ask me where to find it in words ? Turn we then 
at once to the immortal scroll ever fastened into the solemni- 
ties of this our great anniversary. There lies imbedded in 
a brief sentence, more of living and pervading force than 
could have ever been applied to secure permanence to all the 
vast monuments of Egypt or the world. 

We all know it well, but still I repeat it : 

" We know these truths to be self-evident : 1. That all 
men are created equal. 2. That they are endowed by their 
Creator with inalienable rights. 3. That among them are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 

I have considered these significant words as vested with a 
virtue so subtile as certain ultimately to penetrate the abodes 
of mankind all over the world. But I separate them alto- 
gether from the solemn charges against King George, which 
immediately follow in the Declaration. These may have been 
just or they may not. In the long interval of time which has 
passed, ample opportunity has been given to examine the al- 
legations with more calmness than when they were just made. 



9 

May I venture to express a modest doubt whether the Sov- 
ereign was in reality such a cruel tyrant as he is painted, and 
whether the ministers were so malignantly deaf to the appeals 
of colonial consanguinity as readers of this day may be led, 
from the language used, to infer. The passage of a hundred 
years ought to inspire calmness in revising all judicial decis- 
ions in history. Let us, above all, be sure that we are right. 
May I be permitted to express an humble belief, that the 
grave errors of both sovereign, ministers and people, were 
not so much rooted in a spirit of wilful and passionate tyr- 
anny, as of supercilious indifference ; the same errors I might 
add, which have marked the policy of that nation in later 
times down to a comparatively recent date. A very little 
show of sympathy, a ready ear to listen to alleged grievances, 
perhaps graceful concessions made in season, a disposition to 
look at colonists rather as brethren than as servants to 
squeeze something out of; in short, fellowship and not 
haughtiness might have kept our affections as Englishmen 
perhaps down to this day. The true grievance was the treat- 
ment of the colonies as a burden instead of a blessing : an 
object out of which to get as much and to which to give as 
little as possible. Least of all was there any conception of 
cultivating common affections and a common interest. The 
consequence of the mistake thus made was not only the grad- 
ual and steady alienation of the people, but to teach them hab- 
its of self-reliance. Then came at last the appeal to brute 
force — and all was over. Such seems to be the true cause 
of the breach, and not so much wilful tyranny. And it 
appears, m my opinion at least, quite as justifiable a cause for 
the separation, as any or all of the more vehement accusa- 
tions so elaborately accumulated in the great Declaration of 
1776. 

Passing from this digression, let me resume the considera- 
tion of the effect of the adoption of the great seminal princi- 
ple which I have already pointed out as the pillar of fiire illu- 
minating the whole of our later path as an independent peo- 
ple. That this light has been no mere flashy, flickering, or 



10 

uncertain guide, but steadily directing us toward the attain- 
ments of new and great results, beneficial not more immedi- 
ately to ourselves than incidentally to the progress of the 
other nations of the world, it will be the object of this address 
to explain. 



LET us REVIEW THE CENTURY. 

The motto shall be excelsior. 

And first of all appears as a powerful influence of the new 
doctrine of freedom, though indirectly applied, the coopera- 
tion with us in our struggle of the Sovereign Louis the Six- 
teenth, and the sympathy of the people of France. This topic 
would of itself suflfice for an address, but I have so much 
more to say relative to ourselves as a directing power that I 
must content myself with simply recalling to your minds what 
France tvas in 1778, when governed by an absolute monarch 
cooperating witli us in establishing our principle, but solely 
for the motive of depressing Great Britain, and what she is 
in this our centennial year, an independent republic ; after 
long and severe tribulation, at last deliberately ranging her- 
self as a disciple of our school, frankly recognizing the force 
of our sovereign law. 

Our struggle for freedom had been some time over, when 
the arduous task of restoring order by the cooperation of the 
whole sense of the people in organizing an effective form of 
government, the first experiment of the kind in history, was 
crowned by the simultaneous selection by that people of a true 
hero who, having proved himself an eminent leader and trus- 
ty guide, through the perils of a seven years' conflict, was 
called to labor with even greater glory as a successful guide 
of liberty towai'd the arts of peace. 

Looking from this point of time in the year 1789, when an 
original experiment, tlie latest and most deliberate ever at- 
tempted, was on the verge of trial, it now becomes my duty 
to pass in review the chief results which have been secur- 



11 

ed by it to the human race during the past century. Has it suc- 
ceeded or has it failed ? Above all, what has it done directly 
and indirectly in expanding the influence of its great doctrine 
of liberty, not merely at home, but over the wide surface of 
sea and land — nay, the great globe itself. 

Washington was President, but he had not had time to col- 
lect together his cabinet and distribute his work when events 
occurred which demanded instant attention. Without wait- 
ing for the advent of Jefferson, whom he had chosen as his 
aid in the Department of Foreign Affairs, he drew with his 
own hand certain papers of instructions which he commit- 
ted to the charge of Mr. Gouverneur Morris, then about to 
sail for Great Britain, with directions promptly to confer with 
the British Minister thereon. Mr. Morris went out and ac- 
cordingly communicated at once with the Foreign Secretary, 
the Duke of Leeds. The object was to negotiate a treaty of 
commerce, a very necessary measure at the time, but which 
was soon put aside by another and much more embarrassing 
difficulty. It had been immediately reported to Mr. Morris that 
several persons claiming to be American citizens, when walking 
in the streets of London, suspecting no guile, had been, after 
the fashion of that day, pounced upon by a press gang and put 
on board of British vessels to serve as seamen, whether they 
would or no. Here was the beginning of a question of personal 
freedom, started out of the earth at once which no American 
agent could venture to trifle with. Although without special 
instructions, Mr. Morris did not hesitate a moment to submit 
the grievance to the consideration of the Minister. That dig- 
nitary contented himself with an evasive answer, and the 
plea of the difficulty of distinguishing between citizens speak- 
ing the same language ; and such became the standing pre- 
text for the seizure of Americans for many years. The act 
itself, looked at in our present hght, seems to have been bru- 
tal enough even when applied to subjects. How much more 
intolerable when invading the liberty of men having thrown off 
all allegiance to the crown. I doubt whether many of you will 
believe me when I tell you how many Americans underwent this 



12 

kind of slavery. It appears from the official papers that in 
1798, 651 persons were recorded as in this condition. Eight 
years later the I'ctnrn is increased to 2,27o, and the year af- 
ter it amounted to 4,22'.>. The most flagrant act of all was 
the later seizure of several men on board of the Chesapeake, 
an American vessel of war, by a formal order of an Admiral 
of a British frigate on the coast. The ultimate consequence 
of the equivocating course of Great Britain was that this 
grievance proved the chief cause of the war of 1812. 

If ever there was a question of liberty under the definition 
of 1776, it seems to have been this, and the successive Presi- 
dents who were in office during the period, though tliem- 
selves natives and citizens of a region little liable to suffer 
from the apprehended evil, were not the less energetic and 
determined on that account in mainlaining the right. 

On the other hand, this case is not without its lesson 
of the danger of infatuation in politics when we find that the 
resentment for these attacks upon liberty burned with far the 
most qualified ardor in the region where the population most fre- 
quented the seas. The singular spectacle then presented itself 
of the perseverance of those eminent statesmen in upholding, 
even at the cost of war, the rights of that portion of their 
brethren farthest removed from their own homesteads which 
were free from danger ; while many habitants of the coast 
were absolutely exhausting all the vials of their wrath upon 
the same distinguished statesmen for laboring even at the 
cost of war to secure the safety on land and water, of persons 
actually their nearest neighbors and friends. 

The result you all know, was the war, waged under the 
cry of " free trade and sailors rights." A severe trial, but 
abundantly rewarded, by the security gained for liberty. 
From the date of the peace with Great Britain down to the 
present hour no cause of complaint has occurred for the 
impressment of a single American citizen. No dilhculty in 
distinguishing citizenship has been experienced even tiiougli 



13 

little change has been made in the use of the language common 
to both nations. In short, no more men have been taken 
whether on land or on the ocean, by force, on any pretense 
whatever. 

Singularly enough, however, fifty years later, a question of 
parallel import suddenly sprang up which for the moment 
threatened to present the same nations in a position precisely 
reversed. A naval commander of a United States war vessel 
assumed the right to board a British passenger steamer cross- 
ing the sea on hor way home, and to seize and carry off two 
American citizens, just as British officers had done to us in 
former times. This proceeding was immediately resented, and 
the consequence was a new step in favor of liberty on the ocean, 
for the security of the civilized world. The great waters are 
now open to all nations, and the flag of any nation covers all 
who sail under it in times of peace. And Great Britain her- 
self, too often in days long gone by, meriting the odious title 
of tyrant of tlie ocean, by assuming that principle in the in- 
stance spoken of, and likewise by resorting to other and bet- 
ter means than the horrors of the press gang, has not only 
raised the character of her own marine, but has pledged her- 
self to follow in the very same path of humanity and civiliza- 
tion first marked out by our example. 

Such is the first instance of the direct effect upon human 
liberty of the law proclaimed a hundred years ago. I proceed 
to consider the second : 

In this year of our Lord 1876, on looking back upon the 
early events of the century, it seems almost impossible to be- 
lieve that human rights should have been then held in so 
much contempt on the high seas, and that by nations as 
despicable in character as weak in absolute force. 

As early as the year 1785, two American vessels following 
their course peaceably over the ocean were boarded by ships 
fitted out by the Algerines, then occupying an independent 
position on the Mediterranean coast. The vessels were plun- 



14 

dered, and tlie crew, niiinl)eriiig twciity-onc American free- 
men, taken to Algiers and sold for slaves. 

Instead of protestation and remonstrance, and fitting out 
vessels of war to retort upon this insolent pirate, what did the 
government first do ? What but to pray the assistance and 
intervention of such a feeble power as Sweden to help us out of 
our distress, and money was to be offered, not merely to ran- 
som the slaves, but to bribe the barbarian not to do so any 
more. Of course, he went to work more vigorously than 
ever, and his demands became more imperious and exacting. 
The patience of the great Powers of Europe, whom he treat- 
ed with little more deference, only furnished one more exam- 
ple of the case with which mere audacity may for a time 
secure advantages which will never be gained by fair dealing 
and good will. To an American of to-day, it is inexpressibly 
mortifying to review the legislation of the country on this 
matter at that time. It appears that so early as the year 
1791, President Washington, in the third year of his service, 
in his speech to Congress, first called the attention of that 
body to the subject. On the loth of December tiie Senate 
referred the matter to a committee, which in due course of 
time reported a resolution to this effect : 

Resolved, That the Senate advise and consent that the 
President take such measures as he may think necessary for 
the redemption of the citizens of the United States now in 
captivity at Algiers, provided — (mind you) — provided the 
expense shall not exceed $40,000. 

Congress did not think of looking at the Declaration of 
Independence, but they passed the resolution. And what was 
the natural consequence ? The consular officer established 
by the United States in Algiers on learning the result ap- 
proved it, but added this significant sentence : 

I take the liberty to obsoi-ve that there is no doing any 
business of importance in this country without palming the 
ministry. 



15 

The logic of all this was, that the best way to keep our 
people free was to make it worth the while of this ministry 
to make them slaves. 

The natural consequence was that the cost of these opera- 
tions ultimately exceeded $1,000,000, and the example had 
set the kindred Barbary powers in an agony for a share of 
the plunder. In February, 1802, the gross amount of ex- 
penditure to pacify these pirates and man-stealers had risen 
to $2,500,000, a sum large enough, if properly expended on a 
naval force, to have cleared them out at a stroke. 

No wonder, then, that President Jefferson should presently 
begin to recur to his draft of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. Though never very friendly to the navy, he saw that 
freedom was at stake, hence in his annual message of 1803 
he suggested fitting out a small force for the Mediterranean, in 
order to restrain the Tripoline cruisers, and added that the 
uncertain tenure of peace with several other of the Barbary 
powers might eventually require even a re-enforcement. 

So said Jefferson to Congress — but his words were not re- 
sponded to with promptness, and the evil went on increasing. 
The insolence of all the petty Barbary States only fattened by 
what it fed on, until the freedom of American seamen in the 
Mediterranean was measured anly by the sums that could be 
paid for their ransom. There is no more ignominious part of 
our history than this. 

Driven at last to a conviction of the impolicy of such a course 
President Madison, having succeeded to the chair of state, on 
the 23d of February sent a message to Congress recommend- 
ing a declaration of war. The two Houses which had become 
likewise convinced that money voted to that end would go 
further for freedom than any bribes, now responded prompt- 
ly to the call. A naval expedition was sent out, and on 
the 5th of December, nine months after his adoption of the 
new policy, the President had a noble opportunity of re- 
porting to the same bodies a triumphant justification of his 



16 

measure. The gallant Decatur had established tlie law of free- 
dom in this quarter forever. 

Mr. Madison tells the story in these words : 

I have the satisfaction to communicate to you the success- 
ful termination of the war. The squadron in advance on that 
service under Commodore Decatur lost not a moment after 
its arrival in the Mediterranean in seeking the naval force of 
the enemy then cruising in that sea, and succeeded in captur- 
ing two of his ships. The high character of the American 
commander was brilliantly sustained on the occasion, who 
brought his own ship into close action with that of his adver- 
sary. Having prepared the Avay by this demonstration of 
American skill and prowess, he hastened to the port of Al- 
giers, where peace was promptly yielded to his victorious 
force. In the terms stipulated, the right and honor of the 
United States were particularly consulted by a perpetual re- 
linquishment by the Dey of all pretence of tribute from them. 

The Dey subsequently betrayed his inclination to break the 
treaty, and ventured to demand a renewal of the annual 
tribute which had been so weakly yielded ; but the hour had 
passed for listening to feeble counsels. The final answer was 
a declaration that the United States preferred war to tribute, 
and freedom to slavery. They therefore insisted upon the 
observation of the treaty, which abolished forever the right to 
tribute or to the enslaving of American citizens. 

There never has been since a question about the navi- 
gation of the Mediterranean, free from all danger of the loss 
of personal freedom. It is due to the Government of Great 
Britain to add that, following up this example. Lord Exmouth 
with his fleet at last put a final stop to all further pretenses of 
these barbarians to annoy the navigation of that sea. France 
has since occupied the kingdom of Algiers, and the abolition 
of slavery there was one of its early decrees. Thus has 
happened the liberation of that superb region of the world, 
the nursery of more of its civilization than any other, from 



all further danger of relapsing into barbarism. And Ameri- 
ca may fairly claim the credit of having initiated in modern 
times the law of personal freedom over the surface of that 
■classical sea. 

I have now done with the second example of the progress 
of the great principle enunciated in the celebrated scroll set 
forth a hundred years ago. America had contributed greatly 
to this result, but a moment was rapidly approaching when her 
agency was to be invoked in a region much nearer home. 
The younger generations now coming into active life will 
doubtless be astonished to learn that not much more than a 
half a century ago there still survived a class of men har- 
bored in the West Indies, successors of the bold buccaneers 
who, in the seventeenth century, became the terror to the 
navigation of those seas. They will wonder still more when 
I tell them that both ships and men were not only harbored 
in some ports of the United States, but were actually fitted 
out with a view to the plunder that might be levied upon the 
legitimate trade pursued by their own countrymen as well as 
people of all other nations, in and around the islands of the 
Caribbean Sea. That I am not exaggerating in this state- 
ment, I shall show by merely reading to you a short extract 
from a report made by a committee of the House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States in the year 1821. 

" The extent," it says, " to which the system of plunder 
is carried in the West India seas and Gulf of Mexico is truly 
alarming, and calls imperiously for the prompt and efficient 
interposition of the General Government. Some fresh in- 
stance of the atrocity with which the pirates infesting these 
seas carry on their depredations, accompanied, too, by the 

INDISCRIMINATE MASSACRE OF THE DEFENCELESS AND UNOFFEND- 
ING, is brought by almost every mail — so that the intercourse 
between the northern and southern sections of the Union is 
almost cut off." 

My friends, this picture, painted from an official source, 
dates back little more than fifty years ago ! Could we believe 



18 

it as possible that liberty and life guaranteed by our solemn 
declaration of 1776 should have been found so insecure in our 
own immediate neighborhood, at a time, too, when we were 
boasting in thousands of orations, on this our anniversary, of 
the great progress we had made in securing both against vio- 
lence ? And the worst of it all was that some even of our 
own countrymen should have been suspected of being privy 
to such raids. I shall touch this matter no further than to 
say that not long afterward adequate preparations were made 
to remove this pestilent annoyance, and to re-estal^lish perfect 
freedom all over these waters. This work was so effec- 
tively performed in 1824, that from that time to this personal 
liberty has been as secure there as in any other best protect- 
ed part of the globe. 

Such is my third example of the practical advance of hu- 
man freedom under the trumpet call made one hundred years 
ago. 

I come now to a fourth and more stupendous measure fol- 
lowing that call. The world-wide famous author of it had 
not been slow to grasp the conception that the abolition of all 
trade in slaves must absolutely follow as a corollary from 
his general principle. The strongest proof of it is found in 
the original draft of his paper, wherein he directly charged 
it as one of the greatest grievances inflicted upon liberty by 
the King, that he had countenanced the trade. The passage is 
one of the finest in the paper, and deserves to be repeated 
to-day. It is in these words : 

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, 
violating its most sacred rights of life and lil)erty in the 
persons of a distant people who never offended him, cap- 
tivating and carrying them into slavery in another liemis- 
phere, or to incur miseral:tle death on their transportation 
thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel 
powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. 
Determined to keep open a market where men should be 
bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for sup- 



19 

pressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain 
the execrable commerce. 

There is no passage so fine as this in the Declaration. 
Unfortunately it hit too hard on some interests close at home 
which proved strong enough to have it dropped from the final 
draft. But though lost there, its essence almost coeval with 
the first publication of Granville Sharp in England on the 
same subject, undoubtedly pervaded the agitation which never 
ceased in either country until legislation secured a final 
triumph. The labors of Sharp and Wilberforce, of Clarkson 
and Buxton, and their companions, have placed them upon an 
eminence of honor throughout the world. But their struggle 
which began in 1787, was not terminated for a period of 
twenty years. On the other hand, it appears in the stat- 
ute book in 1794, that it was enacted by the Congress 
of the United States : '• That no vessel shall be fitted 
for the purpose of carrying on any traffic in slaves to any 
foreign country, or for procuring from any foreign country 
the inhabitants thereof to be disposed of as slaves." This 
act was followed in due course by others, which, harmonizing 
with the action of foreign nations, is believed to have put an 
eifective and permanent stop to one of the vilest abomina- 
tions, as conducted on the ocean, that was ever tolerated 
in the records of time. 

But all this laborious effort had been directed only against 
the cruelties practiced in the transportation of negro slaves 
over the seas. It did not touch the question of his existing 
condition or of his right to be free. 

This brings me to the fifth and greatest of all fruits of 
the charter of Independence, the proclamation of liberty to 
the captive through a great part of the globe. 

The seed that had been sown broadcast over the world fell 
much as described in the Scripture, some of it sprouting too 
early as in France, and yielding none but bitter fruit, but 
more, after living in the ground many years, producing re- 
sults most propitious to the advancement of mankind. It 



20 

would be tedious for me to go into details describing the 
progress of a movement that has changed the face of civili- 
zation. The principle enunciated in our precious scroll has 
done its work in Great Britain and in France, and most of all 
in the immense expanse of the territories of the Autocrat of 
all the Russias, who of his own mere motion proclaimed that 
noble decree which liberated from serfdom at one stroke 

TWENTY-THREE MILLIONS OP THE HUMAN RACE. This Doble act 

will remain forever one of the grandest steps toward the ele- 
vation of mankind ever taken by the will of a sovereign of 
any race in any age. 

But though freely conceding the spontaneous volition of the 
Czar in this instance, I do not hesitate to affirm that but for 
the subtle essence infused into the political conscience of the 
age by the great Declaration of 1776, he would never have 
been inspired with the lofty magnanimity essential to the 
completion of so great a work. 

I come next and last to the remembrance of the fearful 
conflict for the complete establishment of the grand principle 
to which we had pledged ourselves at the very outset of our 
national career, and out of which we have, by the blessing of 
the Almighty, come safe and sound. The history is so fresh 
in our minds that there is no need of recalling its details, 
neither would I do so if there were, on a day like this conse- 
crated wholly to the harmony of the nation. Never was the first 
aspect of any contention surrounded by darker clouds ; yet 
viewing as we must its actual issue, at no time has there ever 
been more reason to rejoice in the present and look forward with 
confidence to a still more brilliant future. Now that the agony 
is over, who is there that will not admit that he is not re- 
lieved by the removal of the ponderous burden which 
weighed down our spirits in earlier days ? The great law pro- 
claimed at the beginning has been at last fully carried out. 
No more apologies for inconsistency to caviling and evil- 
minded objectors. No more unwelcome comparisons with 
the superior liberality of absolute monarchs in distant re- 



21 

gions of the earth. Thank God, now there is not a man 
who treads the soil of this broad land, void of offense, who 
in the eye of the law does not stand on the same level with 
every other man. If the memorable words of Thomas Jef- 
ferson, that true Apostle of Liberty, had done only this it 
would alone serve to carry him aloft, high up among the ben- 
efactors of mankind. Not America alone, but Europe and 
Asia, and above all Africa, nay the great globe itself, move 
in an orbit never so resplendent as on this very day. 

Let me then sum up in brief the results arrived at by the 
enunciation of the great law of liberty in 1776 : 

1. It opened the way to the present condition of France. 

2. It brought about perfect security for liberty on the broad 
and narrow seas. 

3. It set the example of abolishing the slave trade, which 
in its turn, prompted the abolition of slavery itself by Great 
Britain, France, Russia, and last of all, by our own country 
too. 

Standing now on this vantage ground, gained from the se- 
vere struggle of the past, the inquiry naturally presents itself, 
What have we left for us to do ? To which I will frankly 
answer, much. It is no part of my disposition, even on the 
brightest of our festival days, to deal in indiscriminate lauda- 
tion, or even to cast a flimsy veil over the less favorable 
aspects of our national position. I will not deny that many 
of the events that have happened since our escape from the 
last great peril, indicate more forcibly than I care to admit, 
some decline from that high standard of moral and political 
purity for which we have ever before been distinguished. Tlie 
adoration of Mammon, described by the poet as the 

" least erected spirit that fell 
From Heaven ; for e'en in Heaven his looks and thoughts 
Were always downward bent " 

has done something to impair the glory earned by all our pre- 
ceding sacrifices. For myself, while sincerely mourning the 
mere possibility of stain touching our garments, I feel not the 



22 

less certainty that the heart oi' the people remains as pure as 
ever. 

One of the strongest muniments to save us from all harm 
it gives me pride to remind yon of, especially on this day — I 
mean the memory of the 

EXAMPLE OF WASHINGTON. 

Whatever misfortunes may betide us, of one thing we may 
be sure, that the study of that model by the rising youth of 
our land can never fail to create a sanative force potent 
enough to counteract every poisonous element in the political 
atmosphere. 

Permit me for a few moments to dwell upon this topic, for 
I regard it as closely intertwined with much of the success 
we have hitherto enjoyed as an independent people. Far be 
it from me to raise a visionary idol. I have lived too long to 
trust in mere panegyric. Fnlsome eulogy of any man raises 
with me only a smile. Indiscriminate laudation is equivalent 
to falsehood. Washington, as I understand liim was gifted 
with nothing ordinarily defined as genius, and he had not had 
o-reat advantages of education. His intellectual powers were 
clear, but not much above the average men of his time. 
What knowledge he possessed had been gained from associa- 
tion with others in liis long public career, rather than by 
study. As an actor he scarcely distinguished himself by 
more than one brilliant stroke ; as a writer, the greater part 
of his correspondence discloses nothing more than average 
natural good sense ; on the field of liattle his powers pale 
before the splendid strategy of Napoleon Bonaparte. 

Yet, notwithstanding all these deductions, the thread of 
his life from youth to age displays a maturity of judgment, a 
consistency of principle, a firmness of purpose, a steadiness 
of action, a discriminating wisdom and a purity of intention 
hardly found united to the same extent in any other instance 
I can recall in history. Of his entire disinterestedness in all 
his pecuniary relations with the public it is needless for me to 



23 

speak.- Who ever suspected him of a stain ? More than all 
and above all, he was throughout master of himself. If there 
be one quality more than another in his character which may 
exercise a useful control over the men of the present hour, it 
is the total disregard of self, when in the most exalted posi- 
tions for influence and example. 

In order to more fully illustrate my position, let me for 
one moment contrast his course with that of the great mili- 
tary chief I have already named. The star of Napoleon was 
just rising to its zenith as that of Washington passed away. 
In point of military genius Napoleon probably equalled if he 
did not exceed any person known in history. In regard to 
the direction of the interests of a nation he may be admitted 
to have held a very high place. He inspired an energy and a 
vigor in the veins of the French people which they sadly need- 
ed after the demoralizing sway of generations of Bourbon kings. 
With even a small modicum of the wisdom so prominent in 
Washington, he too might have left a people to honor his 
memory down to the latest times. But it was not to be. Do 
you ask the reason ? It is this. His motives of action 
always centered in self. His example gives a warning but 
not a guide. For when selfishness animates a ruler there is 
no cause of wonder if he sacrifice, without scruple, an entire 
generation of men as a holocaust to the great principle of 
evil, merely to maintain or extend his sway. Had Napoleon 
copied the example of Washington he might have been justly 
idol of all the later generations in France. For Washington to 
have copied the example of Napoleon would have been simply 
impossible. 

Let us, then, discarding all inferior strife, hold up to our 
children the example of Washington as the symbol not mere- 
ly of wisdom, but of purity and truth. ' -' 

Let us labor continually to keep the advance in civilization 
as it becomes us to do after the struggles of the past, so that 
the rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, 
which we have honorably secured, may be firmly entailed 
upon the ever enlarging generations of mankind. 



24 

And what is it, I pray you tell me, that has brought- us to 
the celebration of this most memorable day ? Is it not the 
steady cry of Excelsior up to the most elevated regions of 
political purity, secured to us by the memory of those who 
have passed before us and consecrated the very ground occu- 
pied by their ashes ? Glorious indeed may it be said of it in 
the words of the poet : 

What's hallow'd ground ? 'Tis what gives hirth 
To sacred thoughts in souls of worth — 
Peace ! Independence ! Truth ! go forth 

Earth's compass round, 
And your high priesthood shall make earth 
All Hallowed Ground. 




THE PROGRESS OF LIBERTY, 



IN 



A HUNDRED YEARS, 

AN ORATION, 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

CITIZENS OF TAUNTON, 
4:tK July 1876. 

BY Charles Francis Adams. 



-^@/- 



TAUNTON, MASS.: 

PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF C. A. HACK & SON, 
1876. 






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